A software tool for measurement of the modulation transfer function

Yen-Hong Kao; Michael Albert; Ann-Katherine Carton; Hilde Bosmans; Andrew D. A. Maidment

doi:10.1117/12.597323

20 April 2005 A software tool for measurement of the modulation transfer function

Yen-Hong Kao, Michael Albert, Ann-Katherine Carton, Hilde Bosmans, Andrew D. A. Maidment

Proceedings Volume 5745, Medical Imaging 2005: Physics of Medical Imaging; (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.597323
Event: Medical Imaging, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Calculation of the modulation transfer function (MTF) is a multi-step procedure. At each step in the calculation, the algorithms can have intrinsic errors which are independent of the imaging system or physics. We designed a software tool with a graphical user interface to facilitate calculation of MTF and the analysis of accuracy in those calculations. To minimize the source of errors, simulated edge images without any noise or artifacts were used. We first examined the accuracy of a commonly used edge-slope estimation algorithm; namely line-by-line differentiation followed by a linear regression fit. The influence of edge length and edge phase on the linear regression algorithm is demonstrated. Furthermore, the relationship of edge-slope estimation error and MTF error are illustrated. We compared the performance of two kernels, [-1,1] and [-1,0,1], in the computation of the line spread function (LSF) from finite element differentiation of the edge spread function (ESF). We found that there is no practical advantage in choosing the [-1,0,1] kernel, as recommended by IEC. However, a correction for finite element differentiation should be applied; otherwise, there is a measurable error in the MTF. Finally, we added noise into the edge images and compared the performance of two noise reduction methods on the ESF; convolution with a boxcar kernel and a monotonicity constraint. The former method always produces MTF error higher than 4% up to the sampling frequency, while the latter was consistently less than 1%.

Citation Download Citation

Yen-Hong Kao, Michael Albert, Ann-Katherine Carton, Hilde Bosmans, and Andrew D. A. Maidment "A software tool for measurement of the modulation transfer function", Proc. SPIE 5745, Medical Imaging 2005: Physics of Medical Imaging, (20 April 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.597323

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available